Friday, 24 April 2015

The ultimate Spiderman villain. Dr Otto Octavius. a.k.a Dr Octopus!
With his four robotic arms, Doc Ock has been a problem for Spidey for several years.
Leader of the original Sinister Six and many versions of the villainous team since, Doc Ock has even taken over the body of Spiderman himself.

Time for a pic of the mini!

This Doctor Octopus is based on the 'classic' version in all his green and yellow tubbyness.
I really can't wait to get my hands on this guy.

Thursday, 16 April 2015

With the Batman Game growing in popularity since the Rulebook release, a lot of people are asking online about building tables.

With that in mind, I thought it was about time I put together some reviews on the Gotham MDF Scenery now available from Knight Models.

First up are the GCPD SWAT Van and Gotham Phone Booths.

Both of these kits come in laser cut MDF sheets. These are packed in clear bags with a Batman logo topper.
They also both include instruction sheets so you know where all the bits go.

Each set consists of two sheets of MDF. The Phone Booths are one per sheet and also include a sheet of clear acrylic each but the SWAT van is much bigger so covers two sheets on its own.
When removing the pieces, each has small tabs holding it in so its worth running around the edge with a craft knife first.
Watch out for very thin sections on the front edge of the van sides and long parts of the Gotham Telephone parts. If you are a little heavy handed they could easily break.

Once all the parts are removed, its time for some building! PVA glue is the best for these.

Both of these kits are fairly simple builds. They will take a little time thought as you will want to wait for the PVA glue to hold before moving onto the next part.
There are a couple of bits to watch out for.
On the van you will need to clip off the bottom corner of each door as it sticks into the wheel arch and the door then won't close fully.
For the Phone Booths, build the bottom and the sides first. Once dry, file down the pins on top as they are a tight fit. It would also be a good idea to paint it first before putting the glass in and gluing the top section on.

Once finished these both look great. The etched detail on the side of the van is fantastic and will make painting it a lot easier.

Above is a scale shot next to Origins Batman and Killer Croc. Neither piece is small!

On Wayland Games the Phone Booths cost £5.06 for the two and the SWAT van is £8.62.

With the size and detail I think they are more than reasonable prices.

Monday, 13 April 2015

A very interesting thread has appeared on the Batman Beta Test forum HERE.
The 'FLY' Trait!

- Fly (1SC+1MC):

The basic movement distance of this Character becomes 30cm until the end of the round. This character can move in any direction (VERTICAL MOVEMENT IS ALLOWED ALSO) the final place must be a location where the model’s base can fit.

This character can pay 1 MC (in addition to the above) if so, she/he is considered to be flying until end of the round (Add the flying marker to him/ her). While the character has a flying marker he/she can only be attacked by ranged attacks or melee attacks from another character flying (melee attacks from characters without flying can't attack him/her).

A character can use Fly as a Passive Trait at a cost of 1SC to avoid damage and knock down effect from falling.

At the beggining of the raise plan Phase remove the Fliying counter from the model.If a flying character becomes KO or Knocked Down while it has flying marker the character receives 2Blood damage counters and they lose the Flying marker (the character is no longer flying and takes falling damage).

This character can't run and use this trait during the same round.

This is only a sample of the rule at the moment. It needs some more work and testing and is then due for a future expansion for the game.
I can't wait for this myself. There are always people swooping around Gotham. Maybe Batman will even get one of his flight suits?

What do you think of this addition?
A good idea or not?

While reading over the forum, I started to think about characters that would use the 'Fly' Trait.
Below are my top 5 flying wants.

First up HAS to be Red Robin (Tim Drake) from the New 52. Fitted with collapsible wings and rockets, Red Robin could be a great Free Agent for a Batman crew.
I know there is already a Tim Drake Robin, but Red Robin would fill out the modern Bat-Boys nicely along side Nightwing, Red Hood and Robin (Damien).

Talking of flying good guys, what about Terry McGuiness aka Batman Beyond?
Beyond could make a good alternate Leader to the Batman crew. Or maybe a Sidekick so he could run with Bruce Wayne?
If a model does appear for him, I hope its a 'wings spread' sculpt like pictured.

Staying with the Bat theme, Batman's opposite, Man Bat! Kirk Langstrom has terrified the skies of Gotham for a while. This deadly creature could work well as a Villain Free Agent, giving all of the Crews access to Flight.

Another possible flying Villain Free Agent is Firefly. The one from the Arkham Origins game, not the rubbish one from Arrow.
Firefly would also bring more Fire to the game as there is only one model that uses it so far and a few that are vulnerable to it. Probably even more when the Freeze Crew appears.

The final member of my Flying Five is actually the model I want the most. STARFIRE!
I know she is probably too powerful for the street level Batman game, but they have powered down characters like Lobo already so I can still hope.

Thursday, 9 April 2015

Today I thought I would show you a little side project I have been pottering away with for a while.

As I haven't painted very much in the past, I want to learn different skills and styles to try and do justice to the Batman sculpts.
My main set of paints are the current Citadel / GW set. I know some people don't like them but I have the whole range so it would be silly not to use them.

When I picked up the paints, I was still playing 40K so grabbed the painting book and some of the monthly White Dwarf mags at the same time. Digging those out again I found loads of fantastic 'Paint Splatter' tutorials using the exact colours I have.
This gave me an idea.......

I proceeded to cut up all the Paint Splatter pages and split them into colours for easy reference. I also managed to get my hands on most of the new weekly White Dwarf mags to add those Paint Splatters to the pile as well.

A hardback notebook and about 3 Pritt sticks later and I had my very own Citadel Painting Reference Guide!

Below and some samples pages from the book. I know it's not all by shade, but they were just stuck in where they fit.

What do you think?
I may even scan all of the pages and crate a PDF at some point.

I am still looking to improve it though.
If you have, or know anyone that has any issues of White Dwarf spare from the time between the current paint release and when they went weekly, let me know in the comment below.

Tuesday, 7 April 2015

Recently I decided I was going to build a second board for the Batman Minis Game to go with my City Board (that still isn't finished).
As something that is often seen and mentioned in stories from Gotham , I thought a dockside would be a good addition.

The basic board will be 3'x3' with a section of water at an angle of 45 degrees on one corner that contains at least one jetty / pier.
Why not straight down one side? Well, angled water means all of the buildings and such can be at an angle as well. This breaks up the usual fire and charge lanes you find in a lot of games.

The PERFECT Warehouses for the dock are made by Micro Arts Studio. These are a fair size and the walls, doors and windows can be removed. They even have interior levels to play on.
To start with, two of these will be added to the dock.

To go with the warehouses, Micro Arts also do small blocks of flats or offices. Again, any windows and doors can be removed and there is a playable interior. One of the most appealing bits on this one is the fire escape. Great to Batclaw up to or leap off of.
I'm going to start with one of these, but depending on the space a second may be added.

To add some more interesting levels to the board and to make the jetty, I'm going to grab a couple of the Walkway sets from the same range. These are modular so can be built around, between or even over other items on the board.

What is a dock without a crane? This beauty called 'Ichabod' is from Fenris Games. This massive and detailed piece will make a great centrepiece and really add to the dock look.

So far this could be any old dock. Until you added a tons of shipping containers, crates and boxes from Wayne Enterprises and Queen Industries. With these goodies from Knight Models it couldn't be mistaken for anywhere else.

The addition of some dumpsters and phone booths with 'Gotham' written across them will further cement the location.

Any why did I want to do a dockside in the first place? Well........

I just picked up these awesome Batboats from the Batman Automobilia range. Forever is one of my favourite movies so that one was a 'must have' and I couldn't leave out good old Adam West after growing up watching the old series.

What do you think of these plans?
Is there anything I'm missing so far?